Rigging

While still working on the hull of the ship, I started thinking of the rigging which is one of the most important parts of every model. This is a very complex issue and there are whole books dedicated to this. The reason why rigging is so important is simple: it is more visible than the hull. When someone looks at a model ship it is the tangle of ropes that attracts attention not the bottom of the hull. The best way to represent rigging is to make it as close to real it to reality as possible. In order to do so I studied book and dozens of web pages and internet forums.

First of all I had to prepare some thin threads. It is important that their diameter is corresponds to the scale on the model, otherwise they will look too thick.

Rigging on any ship can be separated in to main categories: standing rigging and running rigging. Standing rigging includes all the ropes that support masts (shrouds, stays and backstays), yards and other spars (i.e. any pieces of wood/metal). The term means that when the ship is moving under sail they are more or less fixed, not that they cannot be adjusted.

Running rigging is used for raising, lovering and controlling the sails. It is called like that because it is often being adjusted i.e. runs through pulleys. There will be different number of lines with different functions for different types of rigging.

I had to select two different types threads for standing and running rigging one must be slightly thicker and darker than the other. Since I had no black ropes I had to color them.

Ship: masts and details

On the Christmas holidays I have spent some time on the ship. I was working on masts an yards and some other wooden parts of rigging. Here are some photos:

The main mast is almost finished. Note the black thread winded on it. They were used to bind together the parts of the mast (it wasn't not made from a singe piece of wood). I also started adding some details my model such as railings of the foredeck and quarter-deck.

Main project

I want to clarify the structure of my main CAS project.

The core of it is the on going building of a model ship. But the main project of ship building involved two sub projects, which were independent activities on their own but were linked by the main target of improving my skills in model making and general knowledge of the topic i.e. sailing ships.

The sea knots learning project:

The rigging is more complicated than it may seem. Not only does every single rope has its own name and purpose but also the way they are connected and laid is different and depends on the type of the ship, its size time and country in which it was build. Historically French ships were different from British or Dutch.

I decided to enrich my knowledge of sea knots in order to practice them before I will use them on my model. Although it probably won’t be possible to see the difference between different knots on the model I will be satisfied because I will know that is is done correctly. And satisfaction is not the least important part in making models.

Sailing

As I mentioned earlier in this blog during summer I learned to sail. Me and my dad sailed a small keelboat. This also contributed to my main project. I learned the how basic rigging works on practice and also applied my knowledge of sea knots.

Ship, update

After quite a long break I continued working on the ship.

I continued the planking of the hull. When the planks reached the level of the deck I had to stop. I had to first attach the upper parts of ribs that will support the bulwark (the part of the hull that goes above the deck level. Then I realised that to do that I have to first finish the deck otherwise it will be very hard to cut the edges of the planks.

The work on the deck was quite boring since I had to repeat same tasks many times.

So I decided to do something else for the sake of variety. I started making the masts. I already had the sticks that I have previously cut to the needed shape and length. Now I had to paint them. I was not sure about the colour. I searched in a couple of books but they had no exact information because the information about the ships of Columbus is very limited. After looking at photos of different models on the Internet I became convinced that there is no clear information available. In general, the masts are supposed to be of the same colour as the hull, but I thought that if I make them a bit lighter. This would make them stand up from the hull and the standing rig, which will also dark.

After doing that I decided to go back to planking and continued working on the upper decks. I started planking the upper parts of those decks after painting the bottom part brown. It was important to do that in that particular order otherwise I would screw the plankking with paint.